16 ON THE STUDY OF 



hensively studied ; it should form a part of our 

 earliest education, and throughout our lives, the 

 various objects which it presents should be con- 

 stantly before our eyes, and be the subject of out- 

 most serious contemplation. 



Having endeavoured to impress on your miuds 

 the tendency and usefulness of the subject, we 

 will now notice the different heads under which 

 it has been usually arranged. 



By natural history, we mean a description and 

 arrangement of those created substances, animate 

 and inanimate, which can be immediately recog- 

 nized by our ordinary senses, and which, from 

 their external character, and relative situation, 

 will admit of easy classification and comparative 

 distinction ; or, in other words, of those sub- 

 stances and appearances, which naturally pre- 

 sent themselves to our more ordinary and daily 

 observation. 



Thus the heavenly bodies, the atmosphere and 

 its phenomena, the sea and the watery element 

 in general, the mineral, vegetable, and animal 

 kingdoms in all their varieties, form the materials 

 upon which natural history is founded. And 

 from these emanate those comprehensive sciences 

 and all those useful inventions, that progressively 

 have been brought to the perfection in which we 

 now see them. 



The science of the heavenly bodies has been 

 denominated astronomy, which professes to teach 



